Hometown Sweethearts: Press

The Hometown Sweethearts absolutely made our reception. Our guests were dancing from the moment they took the stage until the last note--and I mean really dancing. We considered having a DJ at first, since we wanted music that our guests knew and could really get into... But we also wanted something unique, and true entertainment, not just some speakers and lights. The HS were perfect for what we were looking for. The guys know EVERY song that you didn't know that you knew--everything that they play is fun, unique, and totally danceable. And they are SO fantastic at reading the crowd and keeping people on the floor! I think the biggest testament to their talent is that such a wide range of our guests had fun with them--from the little kids to the grandmas, and everyone in between. Even Uncle Mike, who fancies himself a bit of a music connoisseur, was thoroughly impressed. If I were to plan my wedding over again, the very first thing I would do is book the Hometown Sweethearts. Our friends are still asking us about the band and we STILL get compliments on how much fun the reception was--three years later.

With rain threatening on a cool Tuesday evening in September, the Hometown Sweethearts really shouldn't be packing in a crowd at the Crystal Corner Bar with covers of Neil Diamond's 'Forever in Blue Jeans,' Duran Duran's 'Rio' and Motorhead's 'Ace of Spades.' The weekend's over, the downtown streets are deserted, and both working folk and college students should be conserving their vital juices for real-world obligations.

But that doesn't matter to the Hometown Sweethearts' dedicated fans, many of whom knock off from jobs in the restaurant and hospitality industry just in time for the band's second set. They come every Tuesday night to sing along with Waylan (Daniel) as he runs through the hits of the last five decades with support from Cashbox Kings bass player Chris Boeger and busy session drummer Scott Beardsley.

It's like summer camp with beer and mixed drinks, and the shaggy-haired, mutton-chopped Palan is the coolest guitar-strumming counselor ever. Little wonder that by 11 p.m. the chattering crowd at the Crystal still fills every seat in the bar and spills out on the impromptu dance floor.

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You can tell Nate Palan's inspired down at the Crystal when he gallops into another cover tune with the Hometown Sweethearts. Barely pausing to take a breath, he'll go from a Franz Ferdinand request to a rapid fire take on Billy Idol's 'DancingWith Myself' to a popular sing-along of Gnarls Barkley's irresistible soul update 'Crazy' that pits his own on-pitch falsetto against the audience's less reliable keening. Everything is danceable, and half the crowd tries to sing and dance at the same time.

The Sweethearts' covers aren't the plastic, by-the-note run-throughs you get from a venal hotel lounge act. The threesome try to stick to the songs' original arrangements, but with just two formal practices under their belts in four years, some songs are basically the recognizable hook between more amorphous dance grooves.

Which is fine. The three Sweethearts love these old and new hits enough not to deaden their re-creations with mechanical musicianship. To put it another way, they have fun with the soundtrack of your life. As Palan flails away at his big, black acoustic, a wry smile often plays over his lips. Yes, he wants to put over an engaging, likable performance. On the other hand, some of the cheese factor he celebrates at holiday time with the thoroughly sardonic Magic Elves seeps over into the 100-plus songs that the Hometown Sweethearts cover.

Many of those ubiquitous songs of the past few decades are now a little more ubiquitous thanks to local cover band Hometown Sweethearts, who’ve played everywhere from its regular Tuesday-night gig at Crystal Corner to the Old Fashioned. Now your very own home can be Anybar as well, thanks to the Sweethearts’ new CD, A Shower Of Golden Hits!, which includes an R. Kelly song (“Ignition”) and a Tom Waits song (“I Don’t Wanna Grow Up”). The Sweethearts’ bouncy versions recall the fun of the original songs without being too literal, which is fitting—who wants to hear a bar band do it dead serious?